Definitely a Circus
by Bright Anarchy
Summary: Batman never intended to be a dad but the world had other plans. The idea was to visit with the aerialists at the circus and hopefully translate their skills into making the most out of the newly designed grapple gun. This was a challenge fic but I don't remember the prompt only that this filled it. ARGGGH. Here you go: mystery person, mystery prompt.


Batman had made extensive use of ropes and thrown bat grappling hooks climbing buildings painstakingly but now a grapple gun had been developed. The current mayor had made inroads to controlling the Gotham mob situation and Batman was taking advantage of the crime lull to develop ways to fully incorporate the grapple gun into his vigilante toolkit. Alfred teased that he'd run away to join the circus.

Five days a week he trained with the Graysons. They were some of the best ranked trapeze artists in the world. Mary, John and Richard(Rick) were siblings. Karla was Rick's wife. They had two children Johnny and Jason who's last name was Todd as he was from a previous marriage. They were a nice family.

Bruce really took to Mary. He'd always had a way with woman and Mary was magical. Bruce was supposed to just be at the circus to learn how to navigate the sky on the end of a grapple. Mary turned it into something more. Trust, strength, touch, the world of the fliers was intensely physical.

The Graysons were honest and giving, they were generous to a fault and welcoming.

The circus afforded little privacy but Bruce and Mary's relationship had grown intimate. Mary took yearly hormone shots so women's issues wouldn't interfere with the performances. All they were lacking to take the final step was that ever elusive moment of privacy.

Bruce and Mary were first together fifty feet in the air with no net beneath them and the swing of the trapeze creating a rhythm for them. Bruce had been her first. He'd been with a lot of women but he'd never been someone's first before.

Mary was heart and purity, passion and lightness. It was the first time Bruce had been with a woman who wasn't using him to advance herself. The trust and innocence was a little terrifying. It made Bruce almost giddy. Alfred asked him a few times after he'd been with Mary if he'd been drinking. Bruce laughed and Alfred's eyebrows rose.

A detective's training was sometimes bothersome. Bruce noticed the antibiotics, the prescription date and Mary's name with a frown. He noticed the mild flu like symptoms that started not long after their first time together. They eased off after about a month and half. Antibiotics can interfere with hormonal birth control. The flu like symptoms without fever sounded like pregnancy. Her shape was changing too. Her smallish breasts were slightly fuller. Eventually her shape became ever so slightly softer. Strong smells bothered her more.

Bruce considered proposing. Bruce knew what Mary didn't yet suspect. He wasn't sure if she'd want to leave the circus. He knew she had strong feelings for him but would she give up her whole way of life for him? Maybe not just for him but for him and the child?

Testing her, he let her catch a glimpse of Batman. Enough for her to suspect but not enough to prove anything. She called him out on it. "I know how you move Bruce. The way you walk, the way you fly, the way you breath. If you want to tell me something, just tell me."

"I think I love you Mary."

"I know I love you. I think I'm waiting for you to love yourself a little more," Mary had answered with a kiss.

Bruce traced a hand down her cheek, over one breast and down pausing for a moment over her still smooth belly before pulling her close.

Bruce felt free in a way he never had before. The thought of dark nights, sweet days, passion and honesty was a dream he'd stopped hoping for. Mary was good in a way that you rarely found in Gotham.

The circus took a short stint to Metropolis before returning to Gotham. Bruce couldn't follow. He still had a business to run and a city to protect. He and Mary stayed in contact talking everyday. He came to see the show when they came back to Gotham a ring in his pocket.

He kissed Mary before she mounted the trapeze. John her brother smirked at them.

Bruce went to help Jason who had been working the cotton candy stand and had ended up covered in the stuff when the machine broke and he tried to take the thing apart to fix it. Jason was more mechanically inclined then his younger half brother Johnny. The eleven year old smirked at his dilemma he liked flying but had no passion for it.

"Guess I'm skipping the leotard tonight," chuckled Jason with a slightly embarrassed smirk.

"You don't like the current bird theme?" asked Bruce teasingly.

"Nah. I wanna be a mechanic and fix stuff. That, I'm good at. I can do the sky work but I ain't no natural like the others. Can't even manage the triple and Johnny can do a quad."

Jason and Bruce turned as one when they heard the screams.

John, Mary, Rick, Karla and Johnny their broken bodies scattered about the ring...

First aiders were with Rick and Mary. A sheet was being laid over the others. Bruce ran to Mary. He rode with her in the ambulance. She didn't regain consciousness.

"I'm pretty sure she's with child," warned Bruce.

"How far along?"

"Fifteen weeks if I'm right," spoke Bruce looking away. He looked back when he heard the paramedic speak.

"Fetal heart rate is 165." The paramedic noted putting down his stethoscope and palpitating the mother's stomach and checking her leotard for stains. "Are you the father?"

Bruce nodded. He could see for himself that she was bleeding down low. What a way to have his suspicions confirmed.

"Why was she on the trapeze?" the paramedic asked.

"I don't think she'd quite figured it out yet. She used birth control shots and well she's so fit she's not showing at all."

"How did you find out before the mother?"

"I wasn't certain but I found out she was on antibiotics when we were together and there were little signs. I was hoping she'd figure it out on her own. A gentleman …"

"There's no nice way to tell a girl you think she's got a bun in the oven," agreed the paramedic. "As you can see there is a little blood but not enough to think miscarriage is a sure thing."

Bruce didn't answer. Mary's pupil's had been completely non-responsive and her vitals were poor.

Pop Haly stopped by the hospital later. The line had been sabotaged. Pop had brought Jason to visit with his stepdad Rick. Rick had a broken back and was in a coma. Mary had a severe head injury and several broken bones. The doctors had been open with Bruce. They were detecting only marginal brain activity. They'd not given up yet and hoped for some improvement when the brain swelling went down.

Bruce fingered the ring in his pocket. He didn't go home until he knew they wouldn't pull the plug without his consent. Thankfully there were no immediate plans to pull the plug.

The next day, things got messier. Child Protective Services and the police ended up at the hospital asking questions. They wanted Jason in protective custody.

Karla Grayson had been married before but she soon found out her husband was involved in the mob. He'd wanted her as a cover and his true colors were very different from who he'd pretended to be while they'd been courting. He'd beaten her so badly she'd ended up in a woman's shelter. They'd divorced but initially he'd won custody of their son thanks to mob contacts and dirty lawyers. He'd remarried then he ended up in jail. Jason was finally awarded to his birth mother's custody after the, then five year old, had called 911 for an ambulance because his step mom was sick. She'd OD on one of the newest street drugs. She lived but didn't contest the change in custody. Karla was lucky to find a better man; Richard "Rick" Grayson".

Now Karla was dead. Rick was comatose. John and Johnny were dead. Mary was comatose. The trapeze incident had been confirmed as murder. The wires had been tampered with. A man named Tony Zucco with mob ties to Karla's ex-husband, had been trying to extort Pop Haly into using the circus as a cover to traffick stolen goods.

Bruce stepped forward and offered to take Jason until a better arrangement could be made. "The manor has elaborate security. We both want to be here. I know him and his family well. I was with him when we heard the screams," spoke Bruce.

Jason and Bruce didn't speak much over the next month. Bruce was stretched pretty thin, trying to catch Zucco and everyone else involved, daily visits to the hospital, CEO duties. Jason and Bruce shared a routine, "How's your dad?"

"Noth'n's changed. How's Mary?"

"Sleeping still."

Mary's brain function had been steadily decreasing.

Finally after just over a month Bruce asked Alfred for a ride home. As Bruce and Jason sat grimly waiting for the limo Jason looked at Bruce.

"What happened? The jag is in the lot…"

Bruce took the ring out of his pocket and showed the boy.

"Ya gonna marry her?" Jason asked.

"I was going to marry her," agreed Bruce.

"Was but ain't no more?" Jason astutely picked up. His language still micked his birth father's accent.

"Today they declared her brain dead," speaking so candidly to a child was something Bruce would later cringe over. "They want to take her off life support while it's still legal to abort the baby."

"What baby?"

"Mine and Mary's. She didn't know but tucked inside her is a tiny miracle. It's survived this long. In another week, the law considers the fetus a person with rights."

Jason looked at Bruce clearly struggling to understand what he'd just been told. Finally he growled at Bruce. "They ain't murderin' my baby cousin! You tell 'em NO!"

"Momma's dead. Dad ain't getting better an if he wakes up he'll never fly again not even walk. I don't remember my birth dad too well but I 'member he beat mum. The cops talk and talk and talk. My birth dad had to do with all of this. Things was good! This now ain't good. He can't have my baby cousin too."

Bruce came to his senses somewhat when he saw Jason in tears.

"I'm sorry Jason," spoke Bruce.

"Whatever."

A long silence followed.

"Is it a boy or a girl?" asked Jason wiping tears and a drippy nose on his sleeve.

"A baby boy."

"Call him Richard. After my real Dad or maybe John but Uncle John and Johnny and then another John would make it confusing. Will he be a Grayson or a Wayne?"

"Mary and I aren't married. He'll be a Grayson."

"Good. I wish I weren't a Todd. I should be a Grayson."

Alfred too encouraged Bruce to fight for the child. "Master Bruce if you let this go without a fight, it would weigh you down for the rest of your life. Even if you can't bear to raise the child, you must fight for him."

Bruce knew they were right. He went to visit Mary again tomorrow. The baby bump was visible now. Jason watched him. Bruce smoothed his hand against the bump and felt an answering kick. He waved Jason over.

"He's alive Bruce. He's innocent. Don't let them kill him."

"I don't intend to Jason."

Richard John Grayson was born by cesarean at 32 weeks as his maternal support was becoming compromised. Blood tests confirmed Bruce Wayne to be his father although no one really contested it. Bruce had foot the bill to keep Mary on life support long past the time she'd been declared brain dead. Despite being two months premature the baby did well.

"Bruce?"

"Yes Jason?" Bruce watched as Jason held Richard for the first time.

"Thanks for the name. It's a good name. Honest it's awesome but Dad's Rick. Richard's a grown up name. What should I … He needs a nickname. His name's bigger 'en he is. He's… cripes. He's the smallest squirt in the hospital. What's he weight?"

"Three and a half pounds. It will be a while yet before he can come home."

Jason tried a number of nicknames over the next few days. Dickie bird seemed to be what stuck. Richard would open and close his mouth like a baby bird begging for food when he was hungry. Jason would snark at him. "Hold your horses Dickie bird. Food's comin'. Hungry little squirt. Eat and poop.. Ain't cha ever gonna do noth'n else?"

Jason liked to hold Richard and give him his bottle. Jason would smile. It was the only time nowadays Bruce saw Jason smile. Burying Mary was hard and a relief at the same time. She'd held onto a thread of life just long enough for their son to get a start in the world but her time was past.

In the eyes of Child Protective Services the tenuous familial connection created between Bruce and Jason with the birth of Richard was enough for them to back off despite any previous bachelor lifestyle name Bruce had cultivated for himself. No more Graysons could be found. A maternal aunt was found for Richard but Bruce didn't want to give the baby up.

Aunt Harriet came to Wayne manor to help when Richard first came home.

"A house full of young men. You'd be helpless without me." Her husband was sick but like anyone associated with the Graysons she was a good person. She stretched herself thin helping with the new baby and rushing home to help her husband.

Dick didn't seem to ever sleep. Every bit of help was welcome. "Are babies supposed to cry this much?" an exhausted Bruce asked Doctor Leslie.

"He don' cry when I feed him," bragged Jason poking Dickie in the nose and watching his little cousin try helplessly to grab at the thing that kept booping his nose. "Yer aim sucks squirt. Here chew on yer clown. Show'em yer mean gummy gums. Slobber him good. Clowns in Gotham suck."

"He was born premature. He's colicky. Think of it as him explaining to you all the terribly overstimulating things he's seen today," encouraged Leslie stretching out one of Dick's feet to try to get a measurement on his growth.

Dickie's face screwed up in discomfort and he kicked furiously winding up to wail in protest at his feet being uncurled.

"What even is colic?" asked Bruce rubbing his face tiredly. Batman had flung a pacifier at Killer Croc yesterday instead of a Batarang. Luckily it wasn't Dickie's favorite, the pink one with the black and white polka dots. They were all sold out of that model at Baby Mart.

"Gas caused by his still developing digestive track, overstimulation caused by his still developing nervous system. It will ease off in a few months." Leslie was checking Dickie's reflexs, joints and tummy. "His tum tum's rock hard. Have you got gas in there Dickie bird or are you constipated?" Whining protest cries, the precursor to loud wailing cries, eased as she massaged his tummy.

"He cried for six hours straight yesterday," Bruce explained with a note of pleading in his tone. "From seven o'clock straight through till one in the morning. The only time he wasn't crying was when he was eating. He slept for three hours then he was up again crying."

Leslie showed Jason how to massage the baby's tummy then wrote out the name of some anti-colic drops. "I have to be honest Bruce, the medicine probably won't provide him with much relief but the medicine is at least benign. If he's spitting up as much as you say, try reducing his feed by two ounces. He doesn't know the difference between the pain caused by gas, hunger and constipation. Just because he's asking for food doesn't mean he's hungry. If he keeps spitting up I'll prescribe something for reflux."

"You were saying maybe it's the formula? Should I switch brands?"

"Just the drops and the reduction in formula for now. If you change too much too fast it could cause other problems."

"He's asleep!" spoke Bruce like he'd just won the lottery.

Jason was rubbing Dickie's tummy and the baby had passed out still sucking on a knitted soggy clown. Jason chuckled as Dickie tooted in his sleep. "The little stinker likes the tummy rubs Pops."

"He'll sleep more as he sleeps more. Overtired babies don't sleep well," explained Doctor Thompkins.

Bruce looked at her his frazzled brain completely unable to make sense of that last statement.

The lack of sleep and non-stop baby crying were what eventually leaked the big household secret to Jason. Aunt Harriet helped in the day but at night the men of the house were on their own. Alfred had been up for hours walking with Dickie, bouncing him, just about anything he could think to get the little one to sleep. There was a serial killer on the loose and Batman was out looking for clues. He came back with a mother load of data to input but Alfred was completely exhausted so Batman took his baby and put him in the kangaroo carrier pacing while typing on a wireless keyboard. Everytime he stopped moving Dickie would wake up and start crying.

Alfred left the clock open. Jason woke with nightmares and went to check on Dickie because truth be told he always went to check on Dickie when he woke with nightmares. Dickie was the only family Jason had left, not counting Mr. Todd who could stick it where the sun don't shine. Zucco might be to blame for the wires but Jason knew if his birth father hadn't been in the mix, Zucco'd have been somewhere else.

When Dickie wasn't in his crib, Jason followed the sound of the crying. A huge secret cave under the manner and Batman wearing a kangaroo snuggie with a bottle in one hand, a keyboard in the other and his fussy cousin's spit up all down his cape.

"Bruce ya look a sight. Gimme Dickie bird. Do your typey type thing. I gots him." Jason spoke exhausted. He started snickering.

Bruce, the big bad bat chuckled pathetically. "Welcome to my life Jason."

"Yer an idiot," exclaimed Jason fondly.

"So why the bat thing?" asked Jason after Richard was settled eating.

"My parents were murdered in front of me. That's not the full story but it's enough of the story to explain that I needed to help justice along. What happened to your family is Gotham and it can't continue like this. I don't know how much I'm helping but at least I'm not doing nothing."

"No I get the punching out scum and lockin'em up. Believe me I get that," snarled Jason darkly at which point Dickie started to crying again and Jason had to calm himself to calm his little cousin.

"Why the bat suit?"

"It's scary," growled Batman with a slight glare.

Jason scoffed and shook his head. "Not with spit up all down the front of you and Dickie's been gummying at your yellow bat symbol drool it ain't"

Bruce unclasped the cape and peeled off the cowl. "I've been told in a dark alley dropping down from above it's terrifying. The cowl also hides my identity. If you go after the darkest filth in Gotham, you make a lot of enemies. I don't want my enemies coming after Alfred, you or Richard. They'd rip all of Wayne Enterprises apart to get to me. That's a lot of innocent people."

"Crap, put that way, it's a big secret. Ain't nobody's business though," answered Jason. He thought about the revelations of the evening. "If someone finds out. You know, pulls off the mask or somethin'... You got a plan to protect Dickie bird?" asked Jason, his expression piercing. "What if you just get shot in the night. What'll happen."

That was Jason's first reaction. Not awe and wonder but how does this interfere with my ability to protect what little I have left.

Jason was having trouble fitting in at school. He'd been put in grade five instead of six because he was a little behind. His birth father had done him no favours and he didn't stand out as super tall or anything and his birthday was in the summer so it wasn't obvious he'd been held back.

Age wasn't why he was having trouble fitting in. Culture shock or an unwillingness to form attachments after trauma and loss had more to do with it. The teacher wanted him to bring something meaningful from home to share with the class to help break the ice. She said he could do a presentation on that instead of the family tree project everyone had been working on for the past two months because he hadn't had the same prep time as everyone else.

Bruce, Alfred and even Aunt Harriet tried to help Jason find something to present. Jason wanted nothing to do with anything they suggested. Nothing Circus, none of his old toys, nothing from his mom… Nothing, nothing, nothing.

"I wanna bring Dickie Bird."

"I don't think you're teacher had a baby in mind," protested Bruce dubiously.

In the end the teacher gave permission and Alfred agreed to bring Dickie in at the beginning of the school day. Bruce got Alfred to tape the presentation.

Jason carefully got Dickie out of his car seat and held him so everyone could see him.

"This here's my cousin and actually sort of my brother. Special deal, he's a two for one, cuz his dad's my foster father. He's completely and totally amazing. If there was a zombie apocalypse he'd be a survivor cuz like he's been there done that. Even though his mom, my aunt died before he was born, the hospital kept her kinda going till he was big enough to be born. He lived off a zombie.

"His mom fell from real high up when he was still inside her. Little guy had angel wings or something. Wasn't even hurt. Everyone else not so much.

"He did something else really cool too just by being born. See, I'd have gone to an orphanage or strangers cuz Mr. Wayne he ain't really no relation to me until he's my cousin's dad and CPS said that were good enough. It weren't just Mr. Wayne neither. CPS goes looking for family and I ain't exactly got no one but Dickie Bird's got an Aunt Harriet and everyone loves babies so she's been helping. She's been right nice.

"Now don't get me wrong he's cool in his own. He's got a pair a lungs on him like nobody's business. He can scream like a champ. One time he didn't take a break for 9 hours straight. It's like a super power or something. It don't really bother me none. I kinda like to know he's there and he's okay. There usually ain't nothin wrong for to scream about. It is a little funny watching all the grown ups bouncing like maybe if they bounce long enough he'll stop screaming."

A few hands shot up with questions, "Why isn't he crying now if it's like a super power or something."

"Cuz he likes me and if he were crying you wouldn't hear nothing."

"How old is he?"

"Two months."

"His name isn't Dickie Bird is it?"

"His name is Richard John Grayson. He was named after my dad and our uncle. Cousins don't always have the same last name."

"Why isn't he a Wayne?"

"Cuz the wedding got replaced with a funeral ya idiot" snarled Jason.

The teacher trying to distract Jason from an obviously touchy subject asked about the elephant Richard was holding. Dickie kept rubbing the trunk on his face.

"Oh I gave that to him. It's from the circus our family was in. It was advertising merch you could win at the star shooting range where you gotta blast a star completely off a piece of paper to win. I was good at that game. I had two Elinore Elephants, one Gunther Tiger and one Gurbel Tiger. I let him have the extra Elinore. He likes her trunk," Jason explained with a shrug.

"Well,... you wanted my family tree. This is it. I got a sprout."

Jason rolled his eyes because the teacher started bawling.

"Does he eat brains?" One last classmate piped up.

"Nah, he's immune to the whole Zombie thing. Super power. He does spit up more than he eats though, kinda exorcist like. I don't even know how he does that. Three sips of milk and blarghh, he completely covers a grown up's shirt, totally trashes it!" Jason explained with a proud grin.

The teacher was very pleased with the presentation. It went over it's allotted time because it engaged the whole class and it was the most outgoing she'd seen Jason be.

Richard liked having an audience and was big smiles the whole time but they'd purposely chosen his best time of day.

Bruce was just settling into some kind of routine when Talia showed up with a ten year old in tow claiming he was Bruce's son, Damian Wayne. Jason who was always watchful asked bluntly if Bruce made a habit of this sort of thing. Jason was not pleased. Damian and Jason were at each other's throats instantly.

Bruce didn't really want to explain to Jason that he'd been training and undercover collecting evidence against the league of Assassins undercover. He was their best fighter by far and both his identities had been exposed. Talia had laced his food with potent aphrodisiacs and other mind bending drugs. She used birth control rigged to collect extra genetic material rather than prevent pregnancy.

Bruce still had twisted nightmares of the entire event but knew absolutely no one would support him if he brought up rape charges against a woman particularly given his wild bachelor reputation. He still had the evidence tucked away for his own satisfaction. Truth be told Mary was the first woman he'd actually been with since that mess. He'd still dated but he'd not brought anyone home. He'd not been … able to. No one needed to know that about Bruce Wayne or Batman.

He knew about the baby but had been told it miscarried. It had actually been transferred to an artificial womb for augmentation. Damian was conceived five years ago but had been artificially aged and force fed information.

The short version of the story was that Talia had a change of heart when she realized her grandfather Ra had arranged for the creation of Damian simply to use the child's body as a vessel for his own resurrection. She'd grown attached and had prevailed upon Batman or Bruce's better nature to ignore the criminal circumstances of the child's conception.

What to tell Jason though? He could keep standing there glaring like an idiot vulture when two of his .. uh sons?... were at each other's throats about their pecking order due to their family circumstances.

Alfred who'd never once admitted he knew what had happened rescued him. He sat the boys down and explained that they were both born of persons with dubious criminal histories but that he expected them to rise above the circumstances of their birth. He then sat them to watch a documentary on animals mating and told them parents were driven by those same urges complicated by the same human condition that drove people to acts of greatness and villanie. He encouraged them to take neither pride nor shame from the acts of others but to be fine young men in their own right.

Both boys being about the same physical age responded with disgust and revulsion and toned down their fighting whenever Alfred was near and cringed every time they drove past the zoo on the way to school.

Damian first decided Batman needed an apprentice.

"No Damian. Children have no business chasing around the streets of Gotham after criminals."

Damian and his sword snuck out trying to shadow Batman and kill his enemies.

Batman gestured for Penguin's goons to put the boy down.

"What have we here? Batbrat?" asked Penguin.

What followed was a week of headaches while Damian shrieked that "...his name wasn't Batbrat, or BatSqueak or BabyBat or BooBooBat. I am Assassin Bat!"

Goons:

"Did he just say his name was A Sassy Bat?"

"No I'm sure it was Ass Hat…"

Once Damian started trying to patrol Jason wanted in on the act too but he planned a much cooler name. He was going to be Vengeance!

Bruce was not having fun ushering his wayward charges home. "You want fancy names? You can be **Grounded** and you can be **Go to your Room!** "

"Master Bruce, Richard appears to be running a fever," spoke Alfred wearily while Dickie cried inconsolably.

"Is he teething?"

"I don't believe so. The fever is up to 104 even after he's been given a fever reducer."

"Have you called Leslie?"

"She was unavailable."

"Has he been eating?"

"No sir. I believe he is dehydrated but I am reluctant to hook him up to an IV as young as he is. I think the hospital would be best."

"I'll be ready in five minutes. Boys do you think you can help Alfred get some things together for Richard. I expect you to be here in bed when we get back from the hospital. No more trouble!"

Alfred returned home at four in the morning. The older boys weren't in bed. They were asleep in the lounge nearest the front door under the same blanket obviously waiting for news. The Pirates of the Caribbean DVD was in playing its' title screen loop over and over.

"To bed boys," coaxed Alfred.

"Is he going to be okay?" asked Jason frantic.

Damian looked pretty worried too though he didn't say anything.

"He was admitted and is on an IV and is receiving antibiotics. The doctors are doing tests. Master Bruce stayed with him," explained Alfred wearily.

Bruce would be talking with a doctor about Dickie's test results and he'd get an alert that the two older boys (who seemed to be having a who could be more recklessly stupid contest) had snuck out of the house. The locator on his phone would show them heading right towards troubled territory. Bruce would be in a board meeting and the school would call that Damien had brought a sword to school. In the middle of the financial report, Jason ditched school. He was about to present a charity check on behalf of the Wayne foundation and the hospital called about Richard. He was talking with Aunt Harriet whose husband was being transferred to a palliative care ward and who needed to go back to work because she was steps away from bankruptcy and the Bat Signal lit up.

Bruce was exhausted. He stared at Commissioner Gordon doing his best to listen while trying to think of way to pay Aunt Harriet for her childcare help without insulting her. Richard was contagious and Jason not being allowed to visit, was having daily nightmares. Damien was one suspension away from being kicked out of Gotham Academy. The school thought he needed professional help. Bruce blinked and refocused.

"...Scarecrow," Commissioner Gordon finished.

Batman melted mysteriously into the shadows retreating to the security of the Batmobile to review the footage on the cowl camera. He hadn't caught more than a word or two of what the police commissioner had been saying. He hit return on the Batmobile too tired to safely drive, patrol or deal with the Scarecrow. He called his neighbours the Drakes to see if they'd take the boys for Saturday while Alfred straightened out the Wayne foundation issues, and he dealt with … uh.. he rewound the footage to watch again. The Drakes had a responsible teenage son who might be able to handle his two terrors.

Bruce wanted to cry but that would be too much like defeat. Tim, Damien and Jason were all strapped or tied down in the Batcave infirmary screaming and ranting off the residuals of fear gas exposure. It seemed Tim had been delving into uncovering the secrets of Batman. Tim had no trouble stopping Damien and Jason from killing each other but that was almost certainly because all three boys had been too busy scheming. Damien was mentally incapable of keeping a secret when a bragging opportunity presented itself and the Batman thing was leaked to Tim. Jason was the bad idea ringleader and next thing was the boys all decided it was a great idea to go after Scarecrow on their own. Bruce was definitely not tipping Tim for this baby sitting job.

The hospital had just released Dickie who was at least well enough to keep food down but he was still contagious so Aunt Harriet whose husband was in a palliative care ward could not risk exposure to him. Alfred had to take care of Richard. The Wayne foundation was calling nonstop. Who knows what was going on at Wayne Enterprises.

Bruce took a deep breath. The big boys were going to be okay. Richard was getting better. As soon as Richard was well, Bruce would convince Harriet to sell her house which would take care of her husband's expenses then she could move in and help out full time. The only way Bruce could think of to get the big boys under control was to make things official so they'd have to listen to him. When Harriet was around full time maybe things would get better.

"So," asked Superman. "How exactly did you go from the bachelor to dad of five kids of various ages most involved in the vigilante business in one year."

"Tim's parents. Well in their will they didn't consult me but he was always over anyway."

"And Stephanie?" Asked Wonder Woman whose eyes were big listening to the train wreck of Batman's last year.

"Is technically my daughter in law. Tim went through a particularly reckless period after his folks died. They're expecting in the spring and they though Vegas was the best choice. She helped incarcerate her mob father which was a good thing as it was in his best interests but her mother threw her out of the house when the pregnancy became public knowledge."


End file.
